How to Tell a Story People Actually Want To Hear

What if somebody listens to your story and simply didn’t respond to it?

In order be effective, your story needs to be related to something that the audience actually cares about.  Everyone has an emotional reservoir within them and sharing an experience that engages your listener’s emotions is far more appealing than anything a mere concept can provide.

In his work as a storyshower, Matt Busby Andrews helps people share their experiences and problems through their stories to help find resolutions. His message is that we must respect everyone’s story. We must recognise and acknowledge human experiences, and through story you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes. He encourages us to bring out the most basic human elements of struggle in our stories because in that way we will have something everyone will relate to.

To demonstrate the power of emotions in sharing your story, let’s take a bland product like insurance and pair it with a story about a man who had a young family, didn’t have insurance and was injured in an accident. He couldn’t provide for his family and had to deal with his critical injuries as well as the huge worry of not having an income to support his family. Suddenly, this story becomes more compelling as it gets us thinking ‘What if …? What if I were in the same situation as that man?’ Letting your audience picture themselves experiencing what you experienced cannot fail to strike a chord with them.  A great way to make a story relevant then is to spin your story by using one or more of the three universal human fears:

• Fear of not being loved
• Fear of not being good enough
• Fear of not belonging.

The most powerful stories tap into part of what makes us all human. Your story needs to induce emotion in your listeners.  Don’t just tell them about the feeling in the story; take them on a journey and let them experience it for themselves.